I've had this truck for 2 years, and have spent most of the time wrenching on it. I like it when I drive it, but that's been rare. It's finally getting close to being road worthy mechanically, and I've been cracking at it hard for the last week or two. Today I'm finding it difficult to go and work on it. So far, I've lifted it 6" rebuilt the motor last year, then had to pull it again because I cut corners and did not have the rods checked for roundness. So a few weeks ago, I pulled the front clip, yanked the motor again, swapped the crankshaft with a lightly used one, had the rods checked and 2 of them had to be reworked. I put it back together and added EFI exhaust manifolds, an Offy intake, serpentine pulleys from a 1995, a 3G alternator from a 1998 Mustang, and have a firewall A/C Unit and vent box from a 1991 with luxury air. Since this photo, I have put the motor in, welded up the exhaust collector, and started putting on the serpentine brackets. I still need to finish my exhaust, ( I hate exhaust work), I have to pull the dash and put the A/C parts in there, jack it up and prime the power steering lines, put on the front clip, swap the dash to the luxury air dash for front vents, put the front clip back together, and I still want to rewire most of the harness. I still need to fab a few things to wire it the way I want too. During this latest campaign I also primered the fenders, and thought real hard about painting the radiator bracket but I might just skip it until I can have it powder coated. The point is, I'm excited, but I need a kick in the rear to go and finish it. I guess I'm fishing for compliments or other stories of wreck less disassembly projects to make me feel better.

 

i heard you smell nice.

 

LOL, this is going to be one of 'those threads' isn't it?

 

Further along than mine. Im stuck on trying to save up the funds to get the heads and short block to finish my engine build. I had the money but had to blow $3,000 last November as the city got on my *** about my "junked vehicles" as they called them as four of the seven vehicles of mine had no registration on them and some were in the process of being restored. Im good for 3 years though so that's a plus but Im seriously looking at trying to see if Paypal Credit will give me a high enough credit limit to just get the heads and short block from summit. I doubt it though, I have this feeling even with my credit score they will give me the bare min of $250 lol.

 

Dog, at least you got to drive yours only time I drove mine was a bad short test drive when I bought it.
Just look over my pictures if you need a kick to get going, pictures here http://cars.grantskingdom1.com/index.php/1980-Ford-F100
Trailered it and a parts truck, different sellers, home on the same day. Once I knew the motor ran good, had a miss that a plug change fixed, I pulled it completely apart as in cab off frame apart.
This was back in Dec 2015 and I am still working on it https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...lare-side.html

You hate exh work I hate body work and my truck needed A LOT of body work! There have been too many days I could have worked on it over the years but just could not drag myself out to the garage.
I just had 5 days off and only got out for 2 but it has also been mid to upper 90*'s here and it gets hotter in the garage, was 100* one day when I called it quits at about 2pm.

For me the next kick in my butt will be getting paint on it. Hope to pick paint up during the week so maybe next weekend I can paint the bed. With that done then paint on the cab should come shortly there after and it will look like a truck again.
Picture from 2015

Picture from yesterday before I put in back in the garage till next time I work on it.

WOW does not look like I have done anything to it
I can tell you everything but the motor, trany & rear axle is rebuilt under it.

I would say get it on the road and enjoy it a bit before you go doing anything to it again that should give a little kick.
Oh have you tried to make a list of what needs to be done to get on the road?
A white board list is nice as you can see what needs to be done so you don't over look something but as you finish something cross it off the list and you see that as the list gets smaller.
I am going to start my white board after I have the truck painted.
Dave ----

 

I have a pretty good mental white board which never stops repeating itself to me, lol. It actually looks like you've done a lot. I ended up getting out there and finishing my exhaust weld up. All I need is one more clamp and maybe make new brackets. I hooked up the power steering and made a small aluminum bracket for my upper alternator bolt.

White Board List:
Install Water Pump
Pull out the dash
Install A/C ducts
Install front clip
Hook everything up
Rewire the truck

Wiring will take the longest I'm sure. I'm leaving the front clip off until I have everything done that I can do without it. It's so nice being able to just walk up to the motor and work on it instead of standing on a step ladder or crawling under it. Makes me want to build a tilt nose front end like a semi. So yeah, FuzzFace, this is why I started this thread. Sometimes I get on here and read thread after thread about fixing and wrenching, but sometimes you have to just BS about the truck, get enthused again. The trouble I'm having right now is this. In the last 8 years I've brought 3 basket case motorcycles back on the road, restored one, and aslo building a chopper piece for piece from nothing. Then there was a 280ZX love affair for 6 months, my old Dodge, a 1995 Dodge 1500, and now this truck. This is the truck to end all other truck projects for me. I want a simple reliable nice driving all around 4wd pickup. No more after this one. Just motorcycles.They are small, easy, and fun.

 

It does sound like you are or getting burnt out on all the rebuilding even if just bikes.
Sometimes you just have to step away from a project or before starting another and enjoy the ones you finished.

My dad, god bless his soul, always wanted me to fix & flip stuff and I said no. I wanted to build something and enjoy it for a bit and then maybe sell it as we had a shop.
I just hated doing body work for 1 but all the work and then have someone else enjoy it I did not like.
1 summer I did not go on vacation with the family so I could get a car ready for paint when they got back and have a nice looking car to take to school on the first day, up to that point everything looked like carp I took.
3 days before school started he sold the car, talk about pissed!

Got to say that is why I don't get into flipping stuff.
You are always working on stuff and no joy driving them.
Dave ----

 

I hear that. I have this nasty habit of having to sell projects instead of enjoying them. I work in construction so it's feast or famine. I finally learned how to do this. I have a good running small truck, and the Ford which will be my runner pretty soon. When I'm working I keep some money in the bank and gather parts. When I'm not working I work on the projects. Last year I restored a 72' Shovelhead, and it's sitting there because the P.O. did a **** job building a real nice looking engine. The flywheels are out of balance so it's almost not ride able. The chopper I'm building is the bike I finally started to build before my dad passed away. After a life time of seeing him wrenching and riding his bike I finally started to build my own. I have to finish that one, too bad he passed before I got it finished. He really enjoyed the way it was turning out. Whenever I started getting lazy on it or frustrated with fabricating he said to me, "Son I don't think you realize just how cool that bike is." I gotta say, it really is cool too, lol. The other 3 bikes were old Yamahas I was messing around with. I'll just keep plugging away until this is done. Then I'm going camping. I want some road time with it.

Here's the Chop, it's not done yet, but it's %50 there.

 

When things get to that point, you should take a break just for the halibut.

 

It was when I first started driving and was in high school. Last year in school dad and I had a shop together so had a pick of cars off the lot but not vary good looking or something a kid wanted to drive.
Not many kids in high school could drive a different car every day and 2 of them mine with my dealer plate from the shop.

Other than my drag car, in red primer, everything I drove after high school looks some what good and is all 1 color
Dave ----

 

Yep that is my problem, working on cars for a living rebuilding other peoples projects making their dreams come true just makes me not care to work on my own projects. I just rather relax play a game on the computer, watch some videos, or just browse the internet vs working on my own stuff.

It also doesn't help that I don't have the rest of the stuff to finish my engine lol but if I had the desire to I could mount my OEM replacement style tail pipe on the truck and work on the exhaust side up to the muffler at least which I have the tail pipe and the muffler.

 

I've just been pacing myself. It helps that I got to drive it recently. I took it in for an alignment and had some piece of mind, so I took it up the biggest hill around here and kicked back for a bit. Then tore it apart again the next day. It just keeps getting a little nicer with every campaign. I'm bored of movies and games right now, it's sort of working out.

 

Havent drove my truck since the balancer broke apart and spun on the crank back around March/April 2018. Its starting to bother me cause I want to drive my truck, but I cant as I haven't done my 306 build yet. Got all I need minus the short block from BluePrint, the AFR Renegade 165cc heads, the Crane truck max cam, push rods, and a mechanical fuel pump I still haven't decided on. The big things is the short block and heads as the short block is $2400 and the heads are $1800.

What really sucks for me is I am in the slow process of moving so I cant exactly quit where I work at now for a better paying job, but boss just recently hired a third mechanic if you can call him a mechanic, I spend more time helping him than doing what I need to do. Three guys working in a small shop that doesn't have the work load for more than 1 person kind of hurts your income.

When it was just me before the second guy got hired last year, Im not kidding I got $3,000 saved up in quite literally a month. Now I am struggling just to stay afloat week to week. Why I keep eyeing that PayPal Credit as on Summit I can pay $190 a month for 12 months with no interest for the short block. Or I could go to Jegs get the short block and pay $100 a month for 90 months with interest. Either way I am at the point right now I will willingly go into debt just to get my truck back on the road. Longer she sits more work I will have to do to make the truck viable to drive again. Im cutting it close to the point the brakes will start leaking on me due to lack of driving.

 

Take a break from the truck and put a tarpon it.

Seriously, my Bronco was an ignition switch from being driveable. But it leaked like a sieve, rattled, rolled, rocked, stunk, etc. It still does some of those things but less of them. That was last January. So this thread helps me know that I’m not the only one way behind schedule and wore out on it sometimes.

Best of luck!

 

I hear that. Drive one, and work on the other. They get nicer when they just sit there and get fixed. It's been helping me lately to work on cosmetics when I'm not rolling around in the dirt underneath it. It'll be nicer to get in it if the dash and door panels are painted real nice, and the wiring is all done with some extras, etc....Today I painted the dash with rustoleum dark grey primer, then I will go over it with satin clear. I'm painting the instrument panels some nice metal color. I've had a few newer cars with that interior scheme and I like it. It's going to feel like a nice truck eventually.